SEAM

The Southeast Asia Materials Project (SEAM)[1] provides member institutions with better coverage of research materials related to the study of Southeast Asia. SEAM preserves and maintains digital and microform collections of such research materials and makes them readily available to SEAM members. From an initial focus on cost-effective sharing of resources in microformat, SEAM has become, with cooperating institutions and foundations, a major sponsor of efforts to preserve and provide access to rare or unique resources from Southeast Asia.

Founded in 1970, SEAM has received significan grant funding in the past to pursue the microfilming of scarce or endangered materials in Indonesia, Vietnam, and other Southeast Asian countries. SEAM holdings include more than 300 historic newspapers from every country in the region, in national, minority, and English or other colonial languages, similar numbers of historic journals and government serials and thousands of historic manuscripts.

Some SEAM microfilm is available for purchase. For more information, see Microform Sales[2].

Meeting Minutes and other information related to the ongoing work of SEAM may be found in the SEAM Workspace[3]. The SEAM Workspace is a wiki tool that members can access to review, edit, or add content. It is open only to SEAM members.

Topic Guides

About SEAM

SEAM's priorities and structure is determined by its members, and its Bylaws are contained in the SEAM Prospectus[14], which can be revised by a vote of the representatives of SEAM member institutions[15]. The members of SEAM also elect the SEAM Executive Committee[16], which sets and carries out organizational priorities. SEAM meets once a year, usually in the spring, in conjunction with the Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies[17]. At that time SEAM discusses and votes on funding proposals for acquisitions and new projects.

Institutions and nonprofit organizations that maintain a library and whose interests coincide with SEAM are welcome to Join SEAM[18].

SEAM was founded in 1970 by North American librarians specializing in Southeast Asian materials. An article about SEAM's History[19] describes the work of SEAM over the last four decades.

How to Become a Member of SEAM

Membership in SEAM is open to any institution or nonprofit organization maintaining a library and whose interests coincide with the project.

Member institutions are entitled to borrow, via Interlibrary Loan or by fax or electronic document delivery, all SEAM-funded material in accordance with CRL’s lending policies. These materials are also available through the Center for Research Libraries’ online catalog[20], and are in OCLC. Members receive a copy of the latest holdings list developed by the project.

Members receive discounted prices on purchasing microform material filmed by the project and within copyright limitations. Members also participate in the programmatic direction and governance of the project by proposing and voting on materials to acquire or film under the project.

Membership is assessed on an annual basis (beginning in July). Full members are assessed an annual membership fee of $800. New members are also assessed a one-time fee (currently $800) to support access to the historical collection of SEAM material.

Members & Representatives

SEAM Project History

Southeast Asia Microform Project: 35 Years of International Collaboration

by James Simon, Director of International Resources, Center for Research Libraries

Throughout the 1960s, the challenges to acquiring scholarly materials from Southeast Asia were acute. Unstable political climates, inflation, and conflict in the region all made identifying and preserving historical materials and records from nations like Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and others difficult. Government documents proved exceedingly difficult to acquire, as most agencies refused to allow their publications to be sent out of country.[1]

During this period, the strongest representation of material collected was from the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. The advent of the Public Law 480 program for Indonesia in 1964 subsidized the acquisition of monographs, serials, and newspapers by North American institutions. A similar program for Burma, however, met with less success. Materials from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam (then in the midst of military conflict) remained virtually inaccessible.

It was in this climate that research libraries sought collective solutions to the challenges of acquiring and cataloging Southeast Asian material. Early cooperation among universities (particularly Cornell and Yale) gave rise to microfilm projects producing copies of newspapers, theses, and out-of-print materials. With the growing availability of these resources, institutions began to express interest in an inter-institutional repository for Southeast Asian microfilms, where management and distribution of these resources could be undertaken centrally. [2]

January 1969 proved an auspicious month for Southeast Asia librarianship. At a conference on Southeast Asia documentation in Chicago, librarians met to discuss a proposal to establish a “Southeast Asia Microforms” (SEAM) partnership. Organized by Professor Fred Riggs (University of Hawaii), the conference was attended by scholars, librarians, government officials, and other interested individuals.[3] At the meeting, the basic principles for establishing a cooperative arrangement were put in place and a subcommittee was established to craft a statement of need and a development plan.

SEAM’s Foundation and Development

From the outset, the SEAM committee envisioned the project as an international collaborative network. Preceding models, such as the Cooperative Africana Microform Project (CAMP) [23]and South Asia Microform Project (SAMP)[24], were geared primarily towards North American participation. Instead, SEAM aimed to create a project that featured participation and ownership from institutions within Southeast Asia, North America, and other regions. Ultimately, the concerns of the overseas partners and the practicality of sharing a collection across such distances weighed against a true global partnership, and an alternate strategy--to constitute SEAM as a partnership of institutions external to Southeast Asia--was put in place. [4]

A prospectus for the organization of the Southeast Asian Microform Project was forwarded to interested institutions in February 1970, and by the first organizational meeting on April 5, 1970, in San Francisco, 21 North American members had joined the project.[5]

From the beginning, the Center for Research Libraries would play a paramount role in the success of the project, not only due to its experience in administering similar projects but also for its ability to lend materials to a wide array of participating libraries and to sell copies of materials for which it owned the negatives. Hence the Center was established as the legal entity under which SEAM would operate, though the project was constituted as a joint project with the Committee on Research Materials on Southeast Asia (CORMOSEA)[25], which would hold continuing and supportive interest in the project. Representatives of both CRL and CORMOSEA serve ex officio on the executive committee of SEAM. Gordon Williams, the first director of the Center, played a leading and decisive role in establishing SEAM and in the activities of the first several years.

The SEAM partnership was created out of the same concerns and held the same shared principles as the CAMP and SAMP programs:

The need for preservation of scarce, rare, or otherwise endangered materials.

The opportunity for better distribution of research materials.

An interest in developing capacity in the region of study.

SEAM also saw value in providing wider access to previously filmed material, and a distinction was made between original filming projects and materials to be purchased from other sources. The SEAM/North American Pool (SEAM/NAP) was initiated to separately “pool” the funds of participating institutions to acquire extant microfilm—an admirable cooperative effort in its own right, as well as an economical way to quickly stock SEAM’s shelves with available material. SEAM/NAP activities got underway prior to those of SEAM itself, with its formal launch in April 1970.

Acquisition Activities

Under the chairmanship of Peter Ananda (University of California, Berkeley) SEAM/NAP acquired its first materials from the British Public Record Office (PRO). These included India Office Records for Burma (administrative reports, Legislative Council debates, proceedings) and Straits Settlement reports (records, Legislative Council proceedings). SEAM/NAP also devoted portions of its budget to acquiring newspapers such as the Straits Times[26] (1936–42).

After a rather slow start, the activities of SEAM proper (that is, the portion of SEAM devoted to original microfilming) started generating results in 1973 with the acquisition of the Deli Courant[27] (1885–1940), an important early colonial newspaper (filmed from the holdings at the Koninklijke Bibliothek in the Netherlands). SEAM also commissioned original filming from the PRO to preserve various Sessional Papers (Borneo, Brunei, Kelantan, Malay States, Malacca, Singapore, and Trengganu) from the Colonial Office records. A third item was the Burma Gazette[28] (1875–1927), the official publication of colonial Burma. This major undertaking took several years to accomplish and filled more than 300 reels of film.

Program Consolidation

Because of the challenges of locating available material for filming and of securing the acquisition of negatives for reproduction purposes--many institutions, particularly in Europe, insisted on the retention of negatives due to archival or depository policies--SEAM continued to face difficulties in completing projects on a timely basis. Added to the challenges were the rising costs of producing original film and the complex administrative challenge of running what were essentially two separate programs under the same banner. As a result, in March 1978 the activities of SEAM and SEAM/NAP were merged in the belief that integration would allow more flexible and effective acquisition of Southeast Asian materials. The merger was sealed with the issuance of a revised Prospectus in July 1978.

Expansion and Diversification

In 1980, a decade into the project, SEAM listed more than 90 individual titles or collections in its catalog, consisting of nearly 2,200 reels of film and several thousand microfiche. As the project moved forward, the committee turned its attention to expanding its breadth of offerings. Early decisions were weighted heavily towards Burma, Indonesia, and the Straits area. Efforts were made to acquire materials from the Philippines (including, for example, Rosenstock’s Manila City Directory,[29] the influential Chinese-language daily Chinese Commercial News[30], 1948–72, and an extensive set of 19th century Philippines lexicons and dictionaries); Viet Nam (newspapers and serials such as Bulletin des Amis du Vieux Hue[31], Phu-Nu Tan Van[32], and la Tribune Indochinoise[33]); Thailand (Statistical Yearbook, Thailand[34] and extremely rare serials and monographs from the Gedney collection at the University of Michigan); and Cambodia (the newspaper Kambuja Suriya[35] and the Bulletin Officiel du Cambodge[36], 1965–73).

The 1980s were particularly productive years for the project, especially in locating and filming important materials in archives in Southeast Asia. In 1983, Alan Feinstein, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, proposed microfilming of early Javanese newspapers and periodicals held in the Museum Pusat in Jakarta. The museum was considered a "rich and virtually untouched treasure trove for Javanese court literature," and the proposed materials, including the newspapers Bramartani and Jurumartani, represented the first vernacular newspapers in Indonesia. In cooperation with the National Library, SEAM successfully arranged for filming of dozens of titles with on-site assistance by Feinstein.

While undertaking this work, Feinstein was able to develop contacts with other institutions that led to a number of large-scale projects. Undertaken by several Australian universities with the support of the Ford Foundation, a project was established to film the extensive manuscript collection held in the kraton (palace) libraries of the Sultan of Yogyakarta. The approximately 450 manuscripts from the Widaya Budaya collection include court annals as well as works of general interest such as literature, history, genealogy, religion, and arts. With a few exceptions, most notably a Koran from 1797, these manuscripts were copied in the 19th and early 20th century. The estimated 250 Krida Mardawa manuscripts are on dance, music, and wayang (wong and gedhog). SEAM was designated the U.S. depository of all filmed material.

Expanding the Partnership

Encouraged in part by these activities and fueled by the desire to undertake larger projects that member fees could not support, SEAM engaged in strategic planning to identify potential activities and to seek funding support for more extensive efforts. Several foundations had developed interest in Southeast Asian studies and regional preservation programs, and SEAM built fruitful relationships with these, most notably the Henry Luce and Ford Foundations. Alan Feinstein, by now serving as program officer in the Ford Foundation's Southeast Asia regional office, had identified several undertakings for preservation work and was seeking participant support to launch them. For this effort and for several subsequent projects in Indonesia, SEAM would contribute raw film stock to the institutions preserving their material in exchange for a positive copy of the materials produced. Over the next several years, SEAM contributed to Ford projects and received film for such valuable collections as:

Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Indonesia (FSUI) Manuscript Collection: More than 2,300 Javanese manuscripts at the University of Indonesia (Faculty of Letters).

Perpustakaan Nasional Republik Indonesia (PNRI) Manuscript Collection: Nearly 5,000 manuscripts in a variety of languages held at the National Library, by far the most extensive collection in the country.

Special mention should be given to the Library of Congress field office in Jakarta for its assistance in facilitating these projects. The field office provided logistical support, professional expertise, technical equipment, training, camera time, shipping assistance, and many other critical functions--most importantly, perhaps, maintaining good relations and frequent communication with the regional partners. The Library of Congress also played a strong role in organizing another project with the National Library entitled the “Colloquial Malay” serial project, first proposed by Dr. Ellen Rafferty. The project objective was to preserve the most important newspapers and journals in Bahasa Melayu, the regional dialect of the archipelago and lingua franca to transact business among diverse cultures.

The Henry Luce Foundation was another institution that strongly supported SEAM efforts in Southeast Asia. Beginning in 1989, Luce included a provision in its Southeast Asia grant guidelines that any preservation project funded should provide a positive copy of microfilm produced for SEAM. Because of this action by Luce, SEAM was the beneficiary of hundreds of reels from large preservation projects, establishing a tremendous corpus of scholarly material at SEAM. This material included:

Copies of manuscripts filmed at the Cambodia National Library and Cambodia National Museum (Cornell University)

4,000 volumes of important and historic monographs preserved at Cornell as part of its “Great Collections Microfilming Project”

Activities in Indonesia and the Luce-sponsored projects occupied much of SEAM's time and resources, into the mid-1990s. SEAM also developed a major collaborative project sponsored by the Luce Foundation and the Harvard-Yenching Institute to preserve materials held in the National Library of Viet Nam.

Preserving the Past, Investing in the Future

From the late 1990s to the present, SEAM has continued its course of identifying materials in need, both within collections in the U.S. as well as in the region. SEAM has provided substantial funding to Cornell University to support preservation of their extensive newspaper collections (to date, SEAM has supported the filming of nearly 175 titles in long or short runs for the period 1950–90, including a long run of the Vietnam Press). SEAM has also collaborated to support preservation of major archives such as the Documentation Center of Cambodia's collection of Khmer Rouge documents. SEAM has increasingly focused more on contemporary materials, such as human rights documentation, election returns, and political ephemera. The project has also begun to focus attention on the creation of digital resources, particularly for materials that prove easier to use in electronic format (SEAM has, for example, sponsored the encoding of Philippine election returns at the Institute for Public Policy in Manila).

Preservation of critical resources in Southeast Asia is again becoming an international cooperative effort. In 2000, a full 30 years after the first proposal discussion of SEAM at Puntjak Pass, a group of preservationists, academicians, and government officials from the various countries in Southeast Asia met in Chiang Mai to form a consortium to improve the infrastructure for preservation efforts within the Southeast Asian region. The Southeast Asian Consortium for Access and Preservation (SEACAP) issued a declaration on its mission statement, objectives, and short-, medium-, and long-term action agenda,[6] and one of the first efforts undertaken was to establish an online Masterlist of Southeast Asia Microfilms,[7] featuring more than 15,000 records from 37 institutions.

Over the past 35 years, the Southeast Asia Microform Project has played a critical role in preserving important research material from Southeast Asia. As institutions in Southeast Asia continue to develop capabilities to ensure the survival of their cultural property, SEAM will be presented with new opportunities to collaborate with colleagues to identify, preserve, and provide access to these resources.

[1.] Johnson, Donald Clay. “Southeast Asian Resources in American Libraries,” (reprinted from Asian Resources in American Libraries, ed. by Winston L. Y. Yang and Theresa S. Yang). Occasional Publication No. 9; Foreign Area Materials Center; University of the State of New York. 1968.

[3.]. CORMOSEA Bulletin, Vol. 2, No. 4. 1969[38]. (Accessed 8/25/05). The meeting also formalized the existence of the Committee on Research Materials on Southeast Asia (CORMOSEA), formed as a successor to two previous committees.

[4.] The proposal to establish SEAM was made at the International Conference on Research Materials of Southeast Asia held at Puntjak Pass in Indonesia, April 21–24, 1969 (sponsored by CORMOSEA and the East-West Center). At the meeting, those libraries from Southeast Asia in attendance expressed preference to start their own local microfilming organization that would work in cooperation with SEAM.

[6.] The “Chiang Mai Declaration[40],” Proceedings of the International meeting on Microform Preservation and Conservation Practices in Southeast Asia: Assessing Current Needs and Evaluatuing Past Projects, February 21-24, 2000. Accessed 8/31/2005.

SEAM Executive Committee

The SEAM Executive Committee consists of both elected and ex-officio members.

The SEAM Committee elects a Chair and two members. SEAM elects one faculty representative, and an additional scholar representative is appointed by CORMOSEA[42]. A representative of the Center for Research Libraries shall serve as a nonvoting, ex-officio member of the Executive Committee. The immediate past-Chairperson serves on the Executive Committee as a nonvoting, ex-officio member for a period of one year.

Members of the SEAM Executive Committee serve three-year terms, elected in alternate years. The committee has discretionary project approval authority for new projects up to $1,000 and additional expenditures of ongoing projects up to $1,000 in any given year.

Ex-officio Members

SEAM Prospectus

Revised 1978, 1989, 1998, 2000

This prospectus supersedes the original prospectus for the Southeast Asian Microform Project (SEAM) and the Southeast Asian Microform Project/North American Pool (SEAM/NAP) issued in February 1970 and the 1978 Revised Prospectus and 1989 Revised Prospectus. Participants in those projects retained all of the rights to access to the microforms acquired by the project that were set forth in the February 1970 prospectus and its 1978 Revision that consolidated SEAM and SEAM/NAP into a single project.

The 1989 revision clarified the relationship between SEAM and CRL (including offering limited borrowing privileges to members of the latter), brought the organizational structure closer to practice, and revised lending/copying policies to reflect growing collections of positive copies.

This 1998 revision of the prospectus adds one faculty member to the Executive Committee and changes the terms of office of the Committee, as approved by the SEAM membership by a ballot vote on May 15, 1998. The 2000 revision formalizes the agreement to have the Past-Chair serve as an ex officio member of the Executive Committee for one year.

Purpose of SEAM

The Southeast Asia Materials Project (SEAM) is a cooperative endeavor established to provide subscribing institutions with better coverage of research materials related to the study of Southeast Asia. Toward this end, SEAM will film or acquire films of such research materials and make them readily available to subscribers to the project.

Organization

Any institution or nonprofit organization maintaining a library may become a subscribing member of the project by paying the appropriate annual subscription fee. The subscription year shall be July 1 to June 30. A subscriber may withdraw from the project by giving written notice of its intention to withdraw by March 15th prior to the new subscription year. For the life of the project, an institution that withdraws retains the same borrowing and copying privileges as paid-up members for materials acquired during the period of its membership. Institutions joining after the adoption of this revision shall enjoy full access to materials acquired during the period of their membership. For a one-time retrospective fee, new members may gain full access to all materials owned by the project.

The project will be administered by the Center for Research Libraries, which will bill and receive the subscription fees. From the fees received, it will acquire and house films and circulate them to subscribing libraries in accordance with the policies outlined below, and pay all other expenses of the project. CRL shall be reimbursed for reasonable, agreed costs associated with the project.

There shall be a SEAM Committee consisting of one representative from each subscribing institution wishing to be represented which shall meet annually in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies[17]. Except under exceptional circumstances and by a majority vote of the Committee members, all meetings of the Committee shall be open to anyone wishing to attend or speak. Only a single representative from each subscribing institution shall be considered a voting member of the Committee. Except at the annual meeting of the SEAM Committee (for which representatives of a majority of the subscribing members shall be considered a quorum), the official business of this Committee will be conducted by mail ballots.

It shall be the function of the committee to:

Establish annual fees and retrospective fees.

Determine and approve any major changes in acquisitions policies.

Elect members of the Executive Committee.

Advise the Executive Committee as to its wishes in matters related to the acquisition of material to be added to the pool.

There shall be an Executive Committee that shall carry on the business of the project between annual meetings, which shall consist of the Chair, two members elected from the SEAM committee, one faculty representative elected by the SEAM committee, and one scholar representative appointed by the Committee on Research Materials on Southeast Asia (CORMOSEA[44]). A representative of the Center for Research Libraries shall serve as a nonvoting, ex-officio member of the Executive Committee. The elected members of the Executive Committee represent subscribing members of the project and serve three-year terms, elected in alternate years. The Chairperson of the Executive Committee serves a three-year term and is elected by the full committee. The immediate past-Chairperson serves on the Executive Committee as a nonvoting, ex-officio member for a period of one year.

Election of the Executive Committee

The Chairperson of the Executive Committee, ninety days before each annual meeting, shall appoint a nominating committee, to circulate a ballot with its nominees and blanks for additional nominees at least thirty days before the meeting. The new officers will take office immediately after the annual meeting of the SEAM Committee. Should a vacancy occur on the Committee between elections, the Executive Committee may appoint a member of the SEAM Committee to fill the vacant position for the remainder of the unfilled term.

Duties of the Executive Committee

To determine the acquisitions of the project in accordance with the recommendations of the full committee.

To make recommendations to the full committee concerning policy.

To carry on the business of the project between the meetings of the full committee. The full committee may extend limited latitude to the Executive Committee to acquire materials without a mail ballot.

To circulate the minutes of each full Committee and each Executive Committee meeting to the subscribers of the project not more than 60 days after said meeting.

Rights and Obligations of Subscribing Members

Subscribing institutions have the right to borrow from the pool any positive microform acquired by the project during the year, or years, for which the subscription has been paid. (Subscribers outside North America may be subjected to such restrictions as are necessary for guaranteeing the rapid and safe movement of borrowed film [such as a small depository account to cover postage]).

Subscribing institutions have the right of purchasing for its own use, at cost, a positive microform copy from any negative acquired by the project (during the term of their membership), unless such duplication was prohibited under the terms of acquisition of the negative.

Subscribers will receive regularly lists of materials acquired by the project and, periodically, full catalogs of materials owned by the project.

The borrowing institution will pay return transportation and insurance charges on materials borrowed and will reimburse the project for any damage or loss of film that occurs while the film is in the subscriber's custody. The amount of film to be borrowed for the use of any one patron at one time shall be limited to reasonable quantities and loan periods shall be limited to a reasonable time. In case of duplicate requests for the same material, the loan period may be limited to insure prompt access for the second institution.

Subscription Fees

A member of the project shall pay an annual subscription fee. The fee shall become due and payable in full on July 1st of the subscription year. The subscription year shall run from July 1st of each year to June 30th of the following year.

The subscription fee and special fees shall be determined by a majority vote of subscribing members paying the full fee at the time of the vote.

A retrospective fee, set by a majority vote of the subscribing members, shall entitle a new member institution to access to all materials owned by the project.

Special fees may be established for smaller institutions and for overseas institutions wishing duplication privileges only. Institutions which pay such smaller fees as might be established will have no representation upon the full committee or the Executive Committee and will be subject to such limitations as to borrowing privileges as might be established by the Executive Committee.

Access to Project Material by Nonmembers

Positive microform copies acquired by the project will not be lent to nonsubscribers, except under the terms described below, and subscribers may not borrow such material on behalf of nonsubscribing libraries. However, nothing shall prevent a subscriber from borrowing such material for use in the subscriber's library by a visiting scholar from a nonsubscribing institution.

Member institutions of the Center for Research Libraries may borrow without charge a limited number of project materials each year. As a guide, a limited number shall be no more than three titles of approximately six (6) rolls per title.

Nonsubscribers may purchase a positive microform copy for their own use from any negative owned and controlled by the project for the cost of the print plus a surcharge to be determined by the full members. Income beyond costs from such sales will be used to increase the scope of the project.

Nonsubscribing libraries who are not members of CRL may borrow positive copies of materials owned by SEAM in the same quantities as nonsubscribing CRL members, with payment of fees equal to those that CRL would charge nonmembers for the same items.

Any institution located in Southeast Asia will have the right of purchasing for its own use, at the cost of printing, a positive copy from any negative acquired by the project, unless the negative is so restricted as to make duplication impossible.

Ownership and Project Termination

The assets of the project shall be the property of the Center for Research Libraries with the understanding that subscribers to the project shall always have the right to borrow from the Center any positive microform copy acquired by the project and to buy their own positive print from any negative owned and controlled by the project for only the cost of making the positive print.

In the event of termination of the project, subscribers to the project shall continue to have the same right of access as above to all microforms acquired by the project during its existence.

In the event of dissolution of the Center for Research Libraries, disposition of the assets of the project will be made in consultation with the institutions participating in the project.

SEAM Collections

Collection Guides

SEAM's microform and digital collections form a large pool of historical, political, linguistic, economic, and geographical data and primary source materials not available elsewhere. Many of the sets contain archival material or large collections of material that do not lend themselves to traditional analytic cataloging. Many of these sets have Collection Guides to help scholars locate specific material of interest to their research.

Current SEAM Projects

Guidelines for Proposing a New Project

New materials are added to the SEAM collection on an ongoing basis. Funding proposals for acquisitions and new projects are considered each year at SEAM's annual meeting. Proposals to preserve or acquire research material in microfilm, digital or other format are welcomed by SEAM. Guidelines for proposing a SEAM project will assist members in crafting successful proposals.

Guides to Collections

This page highlights important elements of the SEAM collection. It does not represent the complete holdings of SEAM, but is rather a representative description of some of the items of the collection. For access to all of SEAM's holdings, please search the CRL Catalog[20].

Burma

India Office Records [1861-1936]

SEAM holds records from the India Office Library relating to the colonial administration of Burma. These files include:

Cambodia

Cambodian Election Materials, 1992-1993

Dr. Stephen Heder served as Deputy Director of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), Information Education Division. Over the course of his tenure, he collected materials relating to the organization and management of local elections in Cambodia. The material has been preserved on 595 microfiche. Catalog Record[56]Guide[57]

Cambodia National Museum Manscripts

SEAM contributed funds for a cooperative project with Yale and Cornell Universities to film secret police documents of the Khmer Rouge. The archives document the process of repression, terror, and extermination of civilians and leaders in the capital and countryside of Cambodia (1975-79). Catalog Record[62]Documentation Center of Cambodia[63]

Indonesian Microfilming Projects

Indonesian Archaeological Photographs

Photo collection of the National Research Centre of Archaeology of the Republic of Indonesia, 1901-1956, at the Kern Institute, University of Leiden. On 282 microfiche.Catalog Record[65]Guide[66]

Indonesian Political Tabloids microfilm collection

Following Suharto's downfall in 1998, Indonesia's press had newfound freedom. This collection of 340 newspapers, tabloids, and journals are a sample of the serials that chronicle the events leading to the June 1999 elections and beyond.Catalog Record[67]Guide[68]

Kung Koan Records

The Dutch administration in Indonesia used to appoint Chinese headmen to administer the large Chinese communities in cities like Batavia, Semarang and Soerabaja. These 'officers' functioned jointly as a Chinese Council or Kong Koan and were responsible for the registration of births, marriages, divorces and deaths, as well as for arbitration and jurisdiction in local disputes and minor misdemeanors. Included in SEAM's collection are records of assistance to the poor, immigration records, burial records from the Feng Shui Cemetary in Jakarta, donations, accounts, minutes of meetings, travel passes, and court cases.Catalog Record[69]Guide[70]

Sumatra Factory Records

The records include correspondence and reports sent between factories (trading posts) of the British East India Company and their Directors in London (ca. 1685-1825).Catalog Record[71]Guide[72]

Great Britain. Colonial Office. Straits Settlements records

Contains records from 1800-1872. The Straits Settlements (Singapore, Penang, Malacca) fell administratively under the British East India Company and were unified in 1826. The extensive material in this set documents the consultations (minutes), correspondence, proceedings, and other material from the settlements, covering the period through the establishment of the Straits as a crown colony in 1867. On 236 reels from the National Library of Singapore; two reels of indexes also available.Catalog Record[81]Guide [82]

Philippines

Jose Cuenco Collection

Cebuano periodicals held in the Cuenco Collection at the Seminario de San Vicente Ferrer, Iloilo City.Catalog Record [83]

Philippine Election Material

SEAM holds two collections of Philippine election material that once belonged to Dr. Karl Lande. Both collections contain six microfilm reels of information about election results at the provincial and national levels. Republic of the Philippines Commission on Elections, Manila (filmed by Yale University)Catalog Record[84]Philippine Elections, Canvass of Votes (1907-1971) (filmed by Ateneo de Manila University)Catalog Record[85]

Jose P. Laurel Papers (1918-1959)

Jose Laurel was the President of the Philippines during the Japanese Occupation (1943-1945), though his long and distinguished career spanned many decades before and after this period. His papers include extensive correspondence and materials concerning the administration of the Second Philippine Republic, Collaboration Issue papers, Laurel-Langley Papers relating to the Philippine Economic Mission to the United States and other material.Catalog Record[86]Guide[87]

The collection consists principally of unpublished reports made by Philippine social scientists to the Institute. There are approximately of 100 reports, academic papers and assorted materials, dating from the 1960s to the present. The Philippine academy is unlike the U.S. academy in that even top scholars are rarely given much time for their own research as part of their routine schedule. On the other hand, scholars frequently undertake commissioned research assignments. The result of both of these facts is that Philippine scholars write many research reports that do not become published articles or books. Since the 1950s, much important research in Philippine social science has been circulated informally as mimeographed reports rather than formally as a journal publications. Catalog Record[88]Guide[89]

Singapore

Singapore, sessional papers, 1946-1965 (C.O. 940)

Thailand

William J. Gedney Collection of Thai Material

20th century Thai monographs and periodicals from the Gedney Collection at the University of Michigan. Contains materials mainly on Thai drama, folk songs, literature, and poetry. It also has information on history, law, and other topics published in the late 19th- and early 20th-century in Thailand.Catalog Record[91]Guide[92]

Vietnam

Chau Ban: the Dynastic Records of the Nguyen Dynasty

SEAM received 64 reels of Chau Ban (also know as 'vermillion records' because of the ink used by the emperor in issuing decrees) from Vietnam. This material was originally housed in the Imperial Archives and was at one point completely restricted from foreign scholars. The records cover the Gia Long (1802-1820) and Minh Mang (1820-1841) periods of the Nguyen Dynasty. They contain extensive correspondence, memorials from various offices of court, reports from remote provinces, and materials relating to medicinal practices of court doctors.Catalog Record[93]

Other

ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Reports

SEAM Holdings List

All SEAM holdings can be found in CRL’s online catalog[20]. This page features partial lists and descriptions of SEAM’s collections that do not lend themselves to descriptions in Guides to Collections[95].

The August 2011 SEAM Holdings List, the most comprehensive source of SEAM’s collection, contains the definitive bibliographic listing of all materials SEAM has collected since its inception in 1970. The list displays material organized by country, alphabetized by author/title, and has separately organized sections for monographs, serials, and newspapers.

Due to the size of the printed guide (750+ pages), the Web version is presented both as a complete list as well as smaller segments for easier download.

Current SEAM Projects

This page highlights current and new projects undertaken by SEAM and will include project summaries and updates. New project submissions are welcome. For summaries of past projects and indexes or guides to material, please visit the Guides to SEAM Collections[45].

Ambon Ekspres

Issues from February 2006 through September 2008 have been provided by the University of Hawaii for SEAM microfilming. Hawaii was the only holding library of Ambon Ekspres[110] in the US. This Indonesian title was suspended in September 2008.

Borneo Mail

SEAM microfilmed Ohio University's holdings of Borneo Mail[111] for 2001-2001. This newspaper is published in the eastern part of Malaysia, which has a significant indigeous population and also tensions with the Kuala Lumpur-based central government.

Cenderawasih Pos

The University of Hawaii at Manoa has contributed its holdings from 1999-2010 of Cenderawasih Pos[112], a newspaper from West Papua, Indonesia for microfilming.

Harakah

SEAM has microfilmed Ohio University's holdings of this Malaysian newspaper for 1998-2010. Harakah[113] has a reputation for voicing political opposition in Malaysia, where traditionally newspaper content has been tightly controlled by the government.

Harian Sore Garuda

SEAM has microfilmed the years 1992–2005 of the Indonesian newspaper Harian Sore Garuda[114]. This daily regional newspaper from Medan continued the Harian Garuda (a successor to the armed forces daily Harian angkatan bersenjata) and was published until February 2005. Copies of the newspaper were provided for microfilming from the collection of the University of Hawaii, the only holding library in the US.

Pos Maluku

This Indonesian daily newspaper from Eastern Indonesia has been microfilmed by SEAM. The issues to be filmed include May 1991 - December 1994, when Pos Maluku[115] ceased to publish. Holdings are being provided by the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Radar Bogor

SEAM has been microfilming Radar Bogor[116] for the years 1999-2011. This newspaper is published in the Bogor region of Indonesia and the holdings to be filmed come from the University of Michigan.

SEAM/Cornell University Southeast Asian Newspaper Project

SEAM and Cornell University are collaborating to microfilm a large body of Southeast Asian newspapers held in the John M. Echols Collection[117] at Cornell. This four-year collaboration will result in more than 200 titles filmed. For more information on individual titles, please consult the CRL catalog[20].

SEAM/Luce Microfilming and Preservation Project in Vietnam

In October 1993, the Center for Research Libraries submitted a proposal on SEAM’s behalf to the Henry Luce Foundation[118] for preservation microfilming activities of important historical material in Vietnam. The Luce Foundation awarded $180,000 to SEAM for this project in 1994; the Harvard Yenching Institute[119] provided an additional $35,000 to support the purchase of camera equipment. Project funds have been used to purchase filming and processing equipment, support travel for researchers and consultants involved in negotiations and training with Vietnamese institutions, and pay for project staff engaged in the administration and duties of the project. The project aims to make specific materials available to U.S. researchers, while providing Vietnamese research institutions with the capacity for sustained preservation activities. More information and project updates can be found here[120].

You may open the form, add information about your proposed project in the appropriate fields, and then e-mail the completed proposal to Judy Alspach[124]. If you have any questions about the form or about project proposal ideas, please contact Judy Alspach[124].

SEAM Related Projects

SEAM supports the related projects listed below:

SEAM/Luce Microfilming and
Preservation Project in Vietnam

The Center for Research Libraries, on behalf of the Southeast Asia Microform Project (SEAM), submitted a proposal to the Henry Luce Foundation[118] in October 1993 to carry out preservation microfilming activities of important historical material in Vietnam. The Luce Foundation awarded $180,000 to SEAM for this project in 1994; the Harvard Yenching Institute[119] provided an additional $35,000 to support the purchase of camera equipment. Project funds have been used to purchase filming and processing equipment, support travel for researchers and consultants involved in negotiations and training with Vietnamese institutions, and pay for project staff engaged in the administration and duties of the project. The SEAM/Luce Microfilming and Preservation Project in Vietnam[120] aims to make available specific materials to U.S. researchers, while providing Vietnamese research institutions with the capacity for sustained preservation activities.

Thai Journal Indexing Project

The Thai Journal Indexing Project[125], based at the University of Washington Libraries, is part of a cooperative initiative of the Committee on Research Materials on Southeast Asia (a sub-committee of the Association for Asian Studies) to strengthen access to vernacular journal literature from Southeast Asia.

Indonesia projects with the Ford Foundation

SEAM has collaborated closely with the Ford Foundation[126] on a variety of microfilming projects in Indonesia. In exchange for provision of raw film stock, SEAM has received positive microfilm copies of the collections below. Print indexes to the collections are available on loan at CRL.

Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Indonesia manuscript collection

(Faculty of Letters, University of Indonesia)The entire collection of over 2300 Javanese manuscripts at the University of Indonesia (Faculty of Letters) was filmed as part of this project.- 250 reels plus catalog (Katalog induk naskah-naskah nusantara, Jilid 3), on-line index Catalog Record[127]Guide[128]Reel Inventory[129]

Manuscripts of the Kraton Yogyakarta

The approximately 700 filmed manuscripts originated from the palace (kraton) collections in Yogyakarta, Central Java. The ca. 450 manuscripts from the Widaya Budaya collection include court annals as well as works of general interest such as literature, history, genealogy, religion, and arts. With a few exceptions, most notably a Koran from 1797, these manuscripts were copied in the 19th and early 20th century. The ca. 250 Krida Mardawa manuscripts are on dance, music, and wayang (wong and gedhog). The majority were copied in the 1920s and 1930s. This collection was given to SEAM by Sultan Hamengkubowono IX of Yogyakarta.- 121 reels plus catalog (Katalog induk naskah-naskah nusantara, Jilid 2)Catalog Record[130]Guide[131]

Newspapers at the National Library of Indonesia

Not officially a Ford Foundation project, this was the first effort of SEAM in collaboration with the Perpustakaan Nasional in Indonesia. In 1983, Alan Feinstein proposed filming (or acquiring) up to 75 Javanese-language newspapers at the National Library, including Bramartani (Jurumartani), Djawi Kondo, and Darma Kondo, some of the earliest vernacular newspapers of the Indies.

Perpustakaan Nasional Republik Indonesia manuscript collection

(Manuscripts of the National Library of Indonesia)50% of the total collection of 9870 manuscripts in a variety of languages at PNRI were filmed.- 850 reels plus catalog (Katalog induk naskah-naskah nusantara, Jilid 4), on-line index Catalog Record[132]Guide[133]Reel Inventory[134]

Proyek Pelestarian Naskah Universitas Hasanuddin, Yayasan Ford

(South Sulawesi Manuscripts)This collection was gathered from a variety of institutions in the region: Hasanuddin University (UnHas), the National Archives branch in Ujung Pandang, and regional offices of the Pusat Bahasa, Balai Kajian Sejarah dan Nilai-nilai Tradisional, the Provincial Museum, and the Regional Library. Approximately 4040 manuscripts, mainly in Buginese, Makasarese, and Mandarese, were filmed.- 107 reels plus preliminary index (reels 1-82)Catalog Record[135]Guide[136]

Sonobudoyo Museum Project

First proposed in 1986, this project was to film the manuscript collection at the Museum Negeri Sonobudoyo in Yogyakarta. This collection, the largest single collection in Indonesia outside of Jakarta, contains approximately 1,350 manuscripts on Javanese history, religion, and culture collected mainly in the first half of this century. The subject matter ranges from historical chronicles (babad) to texts on genealogy, law, Wayang, literature, Javanese ethics, Islam, almanacs, language, music, dance, and customary law.- 162 reels and catalog (Katalog induk naskah-naskah nusantara, Jilid 1)Catalog Record[137]Guide[138]

Surakarta Manuscript Project

(Javanese language manuscripts of Surakarta, Central Java)SEAM has received microfilm of 2,300 manuscripts from the Museum Radya Pustaka, Istana Mangkunegaran, and Istana Sultan Surakarta (Surakarta, Indonesia), courtesy of the Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology in Leiden (Netherlands). This was one of the earliest microfilm efforts of the Ford Foundation (and NEH) in the region. The Radya Pustaka is the oldest museum in Surakarta (Solo) and houses more than 3,000 manuscripts in Javanese, Indonesian, and Dutch languages. The Rekso Pustoko in the Istana Mangkunegaran holds rare volumes of literature, religion, and philosophy in Javanese. The microfilmed manuscripts include dynastic histories, genealogies of Surakarta kings, history of Islamic prophets, studies of Javanese language and literature, accounts of royal travel, court ceremonies, Wayang plays, correspondence and diaries, and more. The collection is described in "Javanese language manuscripts of Surakarta, Central Java : a preliminary descriptive catalogue[139] / by Nancy J. Florida".- 227 reels 35mm, 51 reels 16 mm.Catalog Record[140]

Universitas Padjadjaran (Bandung) manuscript collection

(Sundanese Manuscripts) This collection was gathered from of 1800 manuscripts was filmed on 52 reels of microfilm. Unfortunately, the microfilms sent to SEAM were not successfully delivered. SEAM is attempting to obtain another copy of this collection.